Justice

             When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers. (Proverbs 21:15)

Let’s start with the understanding that this verse is True at the grand, universal level of Truth. It’s also “true” at the deceived, manipulative level of “truth.” It doesn’t matter which side wins in our elections. The winner declares that at last there may be justice and celebrates. The loser declares that justice has been dealt a heavy blow, and drastic measures are needed to preserve it. This means that we tend to see ourselves as righteous, and them as evildoers, even if we are evildoers and righteous.

I’m not suggesting that you or I are particularly the evil doers, or the righteous. We’re always a mixture. And here’s a brief rabbit-trail  that might show how tragic that is: a mixture of two species (let’s say a male donkey and a female horse) is a hybrid (in this case, a Mule.) Generally speaking, hybrids are sterile. They cannot produce offspring. They are, in effect, unfruitful. What we think of as fruit produce by our mixture of good and evil in ourselves is not true fruit, not fruit worth having.

When God brings justice, rejoicing is justified, not when we do. It is when God brings justice that evildoers are terrified. When we bring justice, the evildoers are more likely to retaliate. This is not to suggest that we shouldn’t seek justice, or rejoice in it, but that we should not assume that what we’re seeking or bringing about is purely justice. we need to watch our attitude.